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He was arrested at work, lost his job, and appeared at Exeter Crown Court after admitting five offences of making and distributing indecent images of children.

Stapleton was given a suspended sentence and told to work with probation to deal with his unnatural urges.

He said he was not attracted to children in real life and would never have acted on his fantasies.

But the judge said it was people like Stapleton who fed the depraved industry in child abuse because without people viewing and downloading such images online the children would not be hurt.

Prosecutor Mr Gordon Richings said police received information that Stapleton had been visiting an online chat room called 'Chatstep' - a website which allows users to talk to people via internet chat rooms.

"Each chat room has a name signifying its content," said the prosecutor.

"Users go into which room interests them. It is known to be used for the sharing of indecent images and users also talk about the sexual abuse of children."

It was established that Stapleton was working at a secondary school as a lab technician and on May 24 last year he was arrested at work on suspicion of possessing indecent images.

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He told police: "Unfortunately I've been very stupid when drunk and I've looked at things on the internet when I shouldn't."

Police searched the defendant's home address in Sherwell Lane, Torquay, and found 35 indecent images of children in his computers. Eight were in the most serious category and showed the abuse of children as young as three and four.

Stapleton told police he could remember sharing about 20 images online. He said he had been visiting the chat room for about six months and knew it was wrong.

"He admitted having fantasy relationships with children," said the prosecutor.

"He said he looked at it for sexual gratification. He says his sexual interest in children was purely fantasy and he would never touch them. He said 'the real thing does not interest me'."

Mr Paul Dentith, in mitigation, said the defendant had been working with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation to try and address his problems. He said he had volunteered to police information about sharing the indecent images.

He said he was deeply sorry and had committed the offences at home when he was drunk.

Judge David Evans said: "You were making weekly visits to the online forum Chatsnap over six months to communicate with like-minded adult individuals and to share images.

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"You admit having a fantasy sexual interest in children, both boys and girls.

"The images, it goes without saying, are repellent and I hope having done some work with professional help you now understand that behind the production of images is the enforcement of appalling abuse which will scar them for life. People like you perpetuate this this because without an audience there would be no production."

Stapleton was given 12 months in jail suspended for 18 months and told to take part in probation rehabilitation days. He was also told to sign the Sex Offender Register, made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and pay costs of £250.